Tag: healthy choices

Summer is officially and finally here (if you live in New England, you know what I mean by “finally” this year) and so is cookout season. This can be a very difficult time for people who are trying to watch their weight or eat healthily because we are surrounded by temptation – from fatty grilled meats to mayonnaise-covered salads to stocked beer coolers – it’s everywhere. It can be really hard to say no to these delicious temptations and even harder to deal with the aftermath, whether it’s weight gain or self-loathing. So, with Independence Day coming up next week, I thought this would be a good time to share my tips on how to get through barbecue season relatively healthy.

Do – Eat before you go

Having a healthful meal or snack before you head off to that cookout will help keep you from overeating once you get there whereas if you arrive hungry or starving you are far more likely to overeat on junk. A combination of lean protein and fiber will leave you feeling full longer, so try having some low-fat cottage cheese on whole grain toast or some grilled chicken and salad or some peanut butter and celery beforehand.

Do – Bring a healthy dish

Instead of making your famous macaroni salad that even you can’t resist, bring some cut veggies and dip or a shrimp and avocado salad with serrano honey vinegar. This will ensure that there is a healthy option for you to eat there. And your friends may appreciate it, too! You could also bring you own options to grill and ask the host to throw them on for you – like boneless, skinless chicken breast or vegetable kebabs.

Don’t – Hang around the snack table

There seems to be some unnamed law of physics that human beings are magnetically drawn to socialize at the snack table, but this pretty much guarantees mindless snacking – every healthy diet’s worst enemy. This doesn’t mean you have to be antisocial. I suggest finding a group away from the snack table to talk to or, if you start talking with someone at the snack table, suggest you move elsewhere by saying “wow, it’s kind of crowded over here, want to move that way so people can get in here?” Or even just be honest and say “if we keep standing here, I’m going to keep eating. Can we move away?” I can almost guarantee your conversation partner was thinking the same thing.

Do – Stay hydrated

When you are walking around talking to people on a hot day and eating salty food like chips and grilled meat, it is very easy to keep drinking alcohol. The problem with that is the more alcohol you drink the more you will crave that salty junk food and overeat. Be mindful of your drinking habits and alternate between your alcoholic drinks and water. This will slow down your alcohol consumption, make you feel fuller, and leave you feeling better the next day. Not to mention it’ll keep you safer.

Do – Get your exercise in

If you don’t have to be at a cookout until the afternoon, there is no reason you can’t get your workout in that morning! This will help you get energized and fire up your metabolism for the rest of the day. It will also leave you feeling more confident and better in your own skin – especially at those pool parties.

Do – Practice portion control

Balance. Balance. Balance. Balance. Did you get that? Balance. As a health coach, I can’t emphasize enough that the key to healthy living is balance. You should be eating healthy most of the time, but, when you want to indulge, you should – just make sure you’re eating reasonable portions and enjoying them mindfully so you feel satisfied with them.

Ideally, you want your plate to be 1/4 lean protein, 1/2 veggies, and 1/4 starchy veggies or whole grain. That is obviously not always possible when eating outside your home, but it’s important to try to get as close to that as you can.

When faced with a smorgasbord of summer foods, it can be easy to load up that plate and then go back for seconds. Instead, pick one or two indulgences you really want and place a small portion of them on your plate and fill the rest with healthy options. And don’t go back for seconds on those “cheat” foods.

Don’t – Beat yourself up

So you didn’t have the self-control you were planning to have and you ate and drank way too much. Guess what? You’re human. It happens to everyone – even health coaches and nutritionists. The worst thing that you can do in this situation is put yourself down for it. You are allowed to indulge occasionally and sometimes it’ll be too much. You need to let yourself have that and then just get back on track. It is so easy to beat yourself up for overindulging and that makes it easier to say “the hell with it – I already messed it all up, so I might as well just keep going because clearly I can’t do this anyway.” Then that thought process becomes your excuse and you end up feeling even more terrible. This is how setbacks become obstacles. The best thing that you can do for your health in this situation both physically and emotionally is be gentle with yourself – say to yourself “well, that wasn’t my best effort, but I’m not giving up on myself” and get right back at it. I’ve seen too many people defeat themselves by allowing one bad day to become a spiral and it’s not fair to yourself.

If you are one of the many parents who struggle to get their kids to eat their vegetables, you are going to love this recipe. If you are an adult who hates eating vegetables, you are going to love this recipe. If you love alfredo. you’re going to love this recipe. The sauce has the velvety texture and creamy flavor of alfredo, but contains just a tiny amount of cheese and is made of cauliflower. Instead of milk or heavy cream, you use the water you cooked the cauliflower in for a liquid so you’re still able to get some of those water-soluble nutrients from the cauliflower. You won’t even know you’re eating a vegetable! What’s even better is this is super quick and easy to make.

A quick note on the pasta. I always recommend whole wheat pastas over white pastas – it is far more nutritious than white and it’s also more filling. However, this sauce is made with water and whole wheat pasta tends to soak that up very quickly so you end up with a grainier textured sauce. I still don’t recommend white pasta. I would say go with a brown rice pasta or a whole wheat blend, like whole wheat and quinoa pasta. It will act less like a sponge while still not being an empty carb. I recommend using penne or ziti because it catches some of the sauce inside of it so you get even more flavor with each bite.

Ingredients

1 head cauliflower

5-6 cloves of garlic, chopped

1 tsp extra virgin olive oil

3/4 tsp sea salt

1 cup water (from the cauliflower)

1/4 cup freshly grated parmesan cheese

1 box whole grain pasta, cooked

Equipment

Blender

Directions

Break up the cauliflower into florets. Place them in a large pot of water and boil until soft.

While the cauliflower is cooking, saute the chopped garlic cloves in the extra virgin olive oil for about a minute – just long enough to bloom the flavor. Scrape the garlic and oil into the blender.

Once the cauliflower is soft, add it to the blender with the salt, water from the pot, and parmesan. Blend until the sauce is smooth.

Add the sauce to the cooked pasta. Optional: top with a little more grated parmesan and cracked black pepper and enjoy!

Using a small head of cauliflower, I had some extra sauce leftover using one box of pasta. So. if you buy a larger head, you may be able to make enough sauce for two boxes of pasta.

If you want to take this one step further, add some grilled chicken and broccoli to it!

With the warm summer months fast approaching, this refreshing and nutritious side dish is bound to be a crowd pleaser at any cookout. What’s more is it looks as good as it tastes! Bright colors like this are a great way to get picky kids to eat something healthy! They can even help mix it all up!

Ingredients

For the Salad:

2 cups cooked quinoa

4-5 medium-sized beets, diced and roasted until soft (I suggest par-boiling them first to cut down on cook time)

For the Dressing:

Instructions:

First, prepare the dressing so the flavors can bloom while you prepare the rest of the salad. Combine the cilantro and fruit juices in a blender and blend about 30 seconds until beginning to get smooth and combined. Add the olive oil gradually and the agave nectar and continue to blend until liquified. Add a dash of salt and pepper and place the dressing in the refrigerator while you prepare the rest of the salad.

Prepare the quinoa according to the package and roast the beets until soft (you can also just boil them but I find that roasting makes the flavor sweeter).

Allow the quinoa and beets to cool before adding the other salad ingredients. You can place them in the fridge if you’re on a time crunch.

Once the quinoa and the beets have cooled, combine them with the diced pepper and avocado in a large mixing bowl. Remove the dressing from the fridge and give it a good shake to mix it all up again. This is where you want to taste it to make sure that it’s the balance you’re looking for. If not, you can add more oil, salt and pepper, or juice. I leave this up to the chef because some people like things zestier than others.

Given just the information below, which of these do you think is a healthy choice for breakfast?

Envirokidz Organic: $4.00 Nature Valley 100% Natural: $3.00

Chances are you chose Envirokidz Organic. What went into your rationale behind that choice? Was it the fact that the label says organic? The gluten free label? Or maybe the fact that it’s more expensive than the Nature Valley?

Here is the nutritional breakdown for each of these:

The Envirokidz bars contain just 1 gram of fiber, 6 grams of sugar, and one gram of protein. That is too much sugar and not enough protein or fiber. Looking at the ingredients list, these contain “natural flavors” AKA chemicals (processed packaged foods don’t have to be 100% organic to have the organic label) and FIVE different types of sugar. This is NOT a healthy breakfast option.

However, the Nature’s Valley bars are no better. Those contain 2 grams of fiber, a whopping 12 grams of sugar, and 4 grams of protein. Sugar is listed as the second ingredient on the label. Keep in mind, ingredients are listed in order of how much of each the food contains. That means that sugar is the second most abundant ingredient. The ingredients also include canola oil, which is almost always GMO and heavily processed, and “natural flavors” or chemicals.

So this was a little bit of a trick question since there really is no healthy option listed, but it illustrates what we typically consider when choosing foods and the information that we really need to look at.

A new study in the Journal of Consumer Research indicates that many people associate higher price with healthier foods. In a world where organic options are pricier and processed junk food is cheap, this isn’t such a strange assumption to make. However, it’s not always true and can lead you to unintentionally make very unhealthy food choices. (Read more about this study here)

The ingredients and the nutrition facts are where the important information about a packaged food lies. Ideally, a smart breakfast cereal choice will contain at LEAST 3 grams of fiber, less than 5 grams of sugar, and at LEAST 3 grams of protein. This is so the fiber and protein can slow the absorption of sugar into your bloodstream. The way our food labeling laws work allow for manufacturers to put labels on their foods that may not be entirely true and reading the ingredients list is the only way to know what a food truly contains. For example, a package may say “0 trans fat” but the food still contains trans fats, also know as hydrogenated oils.

In a perfect world, we could all only eat whole foods, but reality is that we are busy and need some convenience in our lives so we are going to buy packaged foods from time to time. With the knowledge of how to shop smart, you can still make healthy choices in any aisle of the grocery store.

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